Kara Zor-El
Kara felt like there was a speaker playing EDM in her head. Everything ached in a new and unwelcomed way.
Kara's eyes scrunched in pain – she went to pinch the bridge of her nose with her fingers, but found her wrist was being held down.
She jerked slightly, instinctively moving to get up and fight, before she thought better of it. What would Oliver do? He would assess this situation, and then act. Kara forced her features to smooth out, and focused on listening. She tried to pick up the sound of heartbeats, hoping to figure out if Zora had made any friends, and to see how far she was – Oliver and Kara had been working on using her super hearing to determine where people were, in a personalized type of echolocation.
Just like they practiced, Kara subtly sighed. An act that anyone could do; something that no one would find suspicious.
The calculating calm Kara had been trying to adopt vanished unnervingly quickly. She couldn't hear anything more than normal. A little bit of shuffling, but nothing specific. Her super hearing wasn't working.
Okay. This was okay. She should… she should test her other powers.
Semi-panicked, Kara tried using her x-ray vision through her eyelids. Nothing.
Kara's breathing became unsteady. She was powerless. She had no control. Suddenly, she could no longer feel the cold slab of what was likely the Fortress under her. The fresh air was gone. Suddenly, Kara was 12 years old again, and stuck in a pod. She was scared and alone. Her breathing deepened, and she felt the walls closing in.
She needed – she needed to breathe, she needed to escape, she needed to move, and see more than just her dying planet and her dying family.
Her family was gone. She was alone and lost. She wanted to scream but her voice was gone. She had no family. She had no one.
"Well, that's just not true." Kara knew that voice. She would know that voice anywhere. Kara forced herself to look up, and met familiar brown eyes. Her sister squatted in front of her. She was no longer in the pod, but she could still feel it closing in, still feel the panic.
"You're not alone. You're never alone. You know that. If you're alone, then I'm alone, Kara." Alex's eyes were kind and full of hope as they evenly met Kara's watery gaze.
Winn sat down next to Alex. "You have a family here, Kara."
James came next, "we may not be related by blood, but that doesn't mean we are any less real or love you any less."
J'onn squatted on Alex's other side, "we both lost our families, our worlds. That doesn't mean that we can't find new ones."
Kara felt the tears start to flow, as she began to force herself to steady her breath.
Eliza and Jeremiah approached next, and Eliza cupped Kara's cheek as she said "we love you, Kara, and just because we didn't meet until you were 12 doesn't make you any less our daughter."
"We both made it off of Krypton, so Krypton and the house of El survive, through us." Clark joined the group of Kara's loved ones.
"Get up, Kara. You can do this. Focus, and stand." Oliver was the last to join the group, approaching as Kara's breath finally steadied.
The cold Fortress felt real again. She could do this. Oliver was human, and could figure out a situation just as well as any superhero.
Kara took a deep breath in, and listened. She couldn't hear the wind as it swept the snow outside, she couldn't hear the birds from miles away, but she could hear enough. Zora was still, but Kara could hear her breathing deeply. She was working on something, the nature of which Kara couldn't pinpoint.
If Zora had wanted to kill her, she would have already.
In her mind, she turned back to the group of loved ones, who were with her, always. In her mind, Oliver gave her a solemn and decisive nod.
Kara opened her eyes.
The light stung, but she adjusted quickly enough.
She looked down at her arms, to see that they were bound together intricately with rope.
But she only focused on that briefly. Her attention was pulled toward the bracelet that she had on, that she wasn't wearing when she arrived. There was a glowing red disc embedded in it, and it seemed to be welded on.
Kara couldn't help but smirk at the annoying irony of needed super strength to remove the item that took away her super strength.
Next, Kara moved her eyes towards where she knew Zora was.
Zora was seated, working over something that looked like "Kalex!"
Zora barely flinched.
"You fixed Kalex!" Kara continued.
"I did." Zora said with her slight accent. She shifted, facing Kara. "I, of course, made some improvements, and made it slightly more… agreeable."
Kalex must have knocked her out. That's why Kara didn't notice anyone else; she wouldn't have heard Kalex's heartbeat, because it didn't have one.
"Very original, using the same gimmick twice. You know, it's a cheap shot to knock someone out from behind."
"What is the saying on this planet? If it's not broken, do not break it?"
"Was any of it true, Zora? We just wanted to help you make a life here."
Zora turned on Kara, as quick as lightning. "A life I did not want, Kara Zor-El."
Zora took a deep breath, turning back to Kalex. "As for any of it being true, yes. I am from the great Kandorian house of Vi-Lar. And I did have a sister."
Kara's tensed eyebrows softened at the use of past tense.
"What happened."
"Your mother happened. And my arrogance. And her stupid kindness. The family dynamics I explained were true. There was one good sister, and one not so good. I spent my youth being coddled, overshadowed by my perfect younger sister. I never resented her for it, no I loved her too much for that. It was my parents and their hypocrisy I resented.
"So, I turned to less than accepted activities. I began hacking and sabotaging them. Anything they did, I brought down. It was limited to them at first, however, I learned that I liked the chaos, savored it. And, as it turns out, I am very, very good at it. I quickly became one of the most notorious criminals on all of Krypton."
Kara couldn't help but notice the hint of pride in Zora's words. "If you were so notorious, how did I not hear of you? I may have been young, but I was the daughter of diplomats. I tended to know these things."
"You probably heard of me, but by my other name. You go out to your world and become Supergirl? I went out and became the Black Flame."
Kara's blood ran cold. She had, indeed, heard of the Black Flame. She was notorious on Krypton, but Kara's parents had shielded her from any information other than the name. "You're the Black Flame?"
Zora smiled sadistically. "So you have heard of me. Good. Well, I got arrogant, and I got messy, and the government was closing in on me. And my sister, she had to go and over shadow me again. She turned herself in as the Black Flame. She took the blame for me. She knew all of the details of the crimes, she was my sister, after all, and I told her everything.
"Your mother banished her to the Phantom Zone, and my sister, who would have never hurt anyone, went. Without an argument. All to keep me safe."
Kara understood, at least a bit. She would do anything for Alex.
"I knew she wouldn't last long. Its kill or be killed in the Phantom Zone, and I knew my sister wouldn't kill anyone, and I didn't want her to. I wouldn't let her tarnish herself for me. So, I snuck into the building where they store the portal to the Phantom Zone and followed her."
Zora turned around, hiding her face from Kara. Kara bit her lip, a sick idea of where the story was going.
"I was too late. She had been murdered, days ago. Her clothes were torn, and everything valuable was taken. Including the pendent of the House of Vi-Lar. The most precious artifact from my house, gone. And I was stuck there, alone, in the place my sister was murdered. And then one day, I see the daughter of the very woman who killed her, in stasis. I saw the trajectory of where you were going, and when I found out what happened to Krypton, to Kandor," Zora choked up, and against every bit of common sense, everything Oliver had taught her, Kara had the strongest impulse to comfort her.
"Zora…"
Zora silenced her with a glare, and swallowed. "When I found out what happened to Kandor, I knew you were the last chance I had at getting justice for my sister. I knew your mother would watch from the stars as I took the power you cherish so reverently, and destroyed you. First by spirit, then by blood."
Kara inhaled deeply, weighing her words. "Zora, I am so sorry. I know what it is like to lose those most important to you. If your sister had stayed on Krypton, she would have died too—"
"But we would have died together!" Zora roared, moving so her face was inches away from Kara's.
"You're right. And you're right about my mother. She was… far from perfect. But I am not my mom. And killing me wont do anything – it wont bring your sister back."
"You think I don't know that?!" Zora spat. "Of course it wont bring my sister back. My sister, your mother – they're long dead. And we are still here, alone. They left us alone. I don't want to hurt you to bring her back, Kara. I want to hurt you, because you're an arrogant, obnoxious brat, and I really think it will make me feel better."
Zora bent down, so she was talking right in Kara's ear. "Maybe, after you're just a little dead, I will go and get your sister, and your friends Winn and James, and your precious Oliver. And you'll get to watch me torture them." Zora paused, considering. "Although, maybe I will save Oliver for last – he is cute. I bet I could get him to help me."
As Zora turned away, Kara felt a red wash over her vision, like nothing she's ever felt before. Maybe this was what Oliver felt like when in the Arrow Haze.
"As for now, I will just have the pleasure of torturing you."
Zora returned with a lead glove, and a glowing green syringe.
"Now, Kara, this may sting a bit."
Kara idly wondered if anyone heard her scream.